Well I finally got back to work on my Arabic classes this evening at the Brasshouse, after weeks and weeks away (I just work too damn hard dontyerknow). And I’ve missed an irritatingly large number of new words, but happily I can catch up with those on my own.

Slightly less happily I’m now slap bang at the start of working through the notoriously tricky Arabic grammar. Instead of connective words, a lot of the grammar is contained in suffixes tacked onto the end of nouns and adjectives, and my head hurts just at the thought of all the different combinations of word endings we’ve already seen thrown around for masculine/feminine words and possessives. I dread to think what’s going to happen when we get to tenses and all the rest.

Oh well back to work. Got lots and lots of homework, it’s like being back at school again (except this time I at least intend to do it.)

Ma’assalaam antum!

I can’t be the only one who’s getting sick of/not really interested in the endless American election soap opera? Obviously I’m not, but does anyone else think the amount of coverage at this desperately early stage is way out of proportion with what people here are interested in.

I’d consider myself a fairly politically-aware person, and even stayed up all night to watch the presidential election results in 2004, and I just can’t muster the enthusiasm to care about these early stages of the primaries. I know when America sneezes we catch a cold and so on, I’m not saying the choice of leader of the free world is something that we shouldn’t care about, but come on people, did anyone outside of the UK care about the Labour party leadership battle? I don’t know, but I think not.

Even Nick Robinson struggles to make an argument why this actually makes a difference to us. And with at least 10 BBC reporters out there (according to Guido and readers), it makes me a bit embarrassed to see the desperate moths clustering round the flame of politics in the world’s hyperpower. How do the Americans see us? Parochial, uninteresting and desperate to get involved in their world because there’s nothing going on in our tiny backwater. And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

I’m with Barney O’Bergine on Nick Robinson’s blog, who says: “The US primaries are only an issue for pur politics because the media wants them to be. It fills the dull gap when not much is happening here politically. Yawn!” Except there are things going on here, and probably being pushed down the agenda while the country’s media are swanning around in the States.

EDIT: Robinson has posted another response to people who say they’re not interested, with the same old arguments. Link to discussion on this morning’s Today programme on the topic. Apparently it’s all sour grapes from us that think there’s too much. It’s just SO much more interesting than our politics. It’s a rather splendid and magnificent business. And there was AT LEAST as much coverage of Britney Spears in the press. Cue smug laughter. Reminds me why I don’t listen to Today much any more.

Speaking as a part of a rapidly-modernising media organisation, it’s always nice to see other people getting in on the new media bandwagon. Many of the dinosaurs don’t like the idea of the massive change going through all aspects of media in recent years.

So with this in mind, it’s interesting to see Al Qaeda starting to put out its videos in mobile phone download form. If a bunch of medieval scumbags living in caves recognise the importance of publishing its media in new ways to respond to demand, then surely there’s no excuse for the rest of us…

Podcasts due next week, I’m sure.

Yes, according to professor John Samuels, business professor at the University of Birmingham. I’m interviewing him tomorrow about his new book, described as:-

“a book for football fans who are fed up with reading about the successes, the transfer dealings, the wage negotiations and the scandals of the few ‘elite’ clubs.Why have some clubs hit the big time and so many more missed out?Will the game be up for many more struggling teams, or can they claw their way back to the big time? “The Beautiful Game is Over” argues convincingly and urgently for change”

I’ll be hoping to find out some of the financial reasoning behind the dire performances of West Midlands clubs in recent years, in one of the traditional strongholds of the game.z I’ll also hopefully be finding out what can be done for the future of Villa, Blues, and the rest to help them catch up with the big boys of professional football.

More to come in the Birmingham Post, probably on Monday. Link then.

NB: speaking as an Oxford United fan, the beautiful game is most definitely over for me

Added links to all the rubbish I look at on the web, so you can see what interests my grubby little mind

This has done the rounds of the internet a bit, but couldn’t let it go away without pointing it out here. The UK has been named as an Endemic Surveillance Society by the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International.

Obviously us Big Brother-loving Brits lose out because of our lack of constitutional privacy rights, but the list of reasons given for nominating the country along with the likes of Russia and China for the worst privacy rankings still make fairly worrying reading. So I’ll list them in full here.

• World leading surveillance schemes
• Lack of accountability and data breach disclosure law
• Commissioner has few powers
• Interception of communications is authorised by politician, evidence not used in court, and oversight is by commissioner who reports only once a year upon reviewing a subset of applications
• Hundreds of thousands of requests from government agencies to telecommunications providers for traffic data
• Data retention scheme took a significant step forward with the quiet changes based on EU law
• Plans are emerging regarding surveillance of communications networks for the protection of copyrighted content
• Despite data breaches, ‘joined-up government’ initiatives continue
• Identity scheme still planned to be the most invasive in the world, highly centralised and biometrics-driven; plan to issue all foreigners with cards in 2008 are continuing
• E-borders plans include increased data collection on travellers

Back in March, Birmingham City Council quietly announced that 400 cameras installed to monitor traffic congestion would be turned over to the police to use for crime fighting purposes. Council transport boss Len Gregory said he thought most people welcomed increased surveillance because it made the city safer, and actually used the “if you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing to fear” line.

Well I’m not sure about the first point, and I definitely don’t agree with the second. I’d be interested to see if any figures back up the point that CCTV cameras reduce crime (honestly, I’m not just trying to be argumentative), and I think the hoary old “nothing to hide quote” is frankly bollocks. I’ve got nothing to fear from the law, but I can still think of plenty of things I don’t want people to know about me. This kind of attitude seems to think there’s no need for privacy outside the home.

Well whatever you think of the council’s attitude to surveillance of the city and its citizens, at least they don’t have the cheek to take the mick with posters like the one pictured, put up by Transport for London.

Well I’m blogging, eaten a reasonably healthy dinner, haven’t been drinking, went to the gym this morning, thought happy thoughts and hardly complained about things at all. So today at least I’m doing well with the massive numbers of resolutions that will keep me entertained for the next week or two.

I was looking at some Web 2.0 tool that are supposed to help you manage your goals, some with the help of an online community geeing you on.

But having thought about it, I’m not going to share this one with the net. Think personal resolutions, or at least mine, are probably kept private (i.e. off the internet). And at least then, when they peter out about the same time as January does (if that), then no one will notice…